12 Jul 2021
Eight-week-old Toulouse has beaten the odds after being born with atresia ani type three that left him with a colon that had no anus, requiring intricate surgery to resolve.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Toulouse (right) with his sister Mila.
A cat given just a 1% chance to live has been saved by vets after they performed a rare surgery to give it an anus.
Toulouse the shorthair tabby kitten was born with an incredibly rare condition named atresia ani type three, leaving him with a colon that had no anus.
The eight-week-old kitten was brought into the Castleford branch of Vets4Pets by his owners after they noticed his inability to use his litter box.
Castleford practice owner Chris Coutts discovered the cat’s rare condition and Toulouse was given just hours to live as his bowels began to back up.
Four hours after he arrived at the practice, vets were already preparing to undertake a rare surgical procedure to give Toulouse an anus.
The surgery involved making an incision in the perineum and very carefully dissecting until it was possible to identify the blind end of the colon.
A stay suture was placed in the colon to provide gentle traction and the colon itself was incised to make an opening before suturing the colonic mucosa to the skin.
Mr Coutts said: “Toulouse is even rarer than the condition he had, in that he made it to an age when he could have an operation and is now making a good recovery.
“While we’re certainly over the most dangerous stage, we’ll only be able to fully assess his progress when he becomes an adult cat, towards the end of the year.”
The kitten’s owners undoubtedly played a significant part in helping Toulouse by quickly realising something was wrong and bringing him into the practice.
If they had delayed this by even a day, the outcome would likely have been very different.
Mr Coutts added: “The operation itself was very tricky, given Toulouse was still a small kitten and it was most certainly a team effort to get it done.
“We didn’t fully know what we’d find, so it was a case of seeing what the situation was and go from there. Luckily it all went very well.
“One of the remarkable things from this condition is we’re still unsure of Toulouse’s sex, although we do think he’s male. However, it’s great to see him making progress and we’re keeping everything crossed that this continues.”
